Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

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Solar Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/solener

Sliding mode control of grid-tied single-phase inverter in a photovoltaic

MPPT application
José Antonio Cortajarena a,⇑, Oscar Barambones b, Patxi Alkorta a, Julián De Marcos a
a
Engineering School of Gipuzkoa (Eibar), University of the Basque Country, Otaola 29, 20600 Eibar, Spain
b
Engineering School of Vitoria, University of the Basque Country, Nieves Cano 12, 01006 Vitoria, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper presents the design and experimental validation of a new Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) for a
Received 3 March 2017 single-phase grid-tie inverter in a photovoltaic (PV) Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) application.
Received in revised form 3 July 2017 The number of PV modules required in the string is determined to meet the voltage requirements of the
Accepted 6 July 2017
grid-connected inverter, this way the PV modules are connected directly to the DC link of the inverter in a
Available online 13 July 2017
centralized topology and the high step-up power converter of the conventional systems is avoided,
obtaining a higher efficiency. The used MPPT algorithm is the hill climbing or perturbation–observation
Keywords:
(P&O) and a new Sliding Mode Controller is used to regulate the desired inverter voltage according to the
Sliding Mode Controller
Photovoltaic MPPT
MPPT algorithm. SMC allows to avoid the need of an exact knowledge of the system parameters and
Grid-tied inverter offers many desirable properties, such as good performance against no modelled dynamics, insensitivity
d-q virtual bi-phase to parameter variations, and an excellent external disturbance rejection. The inverter control has been
Efficiency designed in the d-q rotating reference frame after use a virtual bi-phase system. Several experimental
tests have been carried out in suitable and adverse conditions, concluding that the presented system pro-
vides an efficient maximum power tracking.
Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction DC step-up stage, necessary to increase the voltage to values higher

Solar energy is the cleanest and most abundant renewable
energy source available (Solar Energy Industries Association,
2005), and the availability of solar irradiation is high in most geo-
graphical locations in the world (Abu-Rub et al., 2014; Marcel et al.,
2007). Modern technology can employ this energy for a variety of
uses, including generating electricity. In this sense, the photo-
voltaic generation has experienced a strong growth in the last
few years over the world. PV installations are no longer isolated
from the grid but connected to it, becoming part of the electricity
generation mix (Rodrigo et al., 2016).
The energy generated by the PV systems is dependent mainly
on the solar irradiance level and the module temperature. In order
to ensure extraction of the maximum available energy in any
ambient condition, maximum power point tracking for PV systems
is essential (Gupta et al., 2016; Heslop and MacGill, 2014). Differ-
ent PV array topologies have been proposed in the literature
(Balato et al., 2016; Tsai et al., 2013; Sanseverino et al., 2015),
but most of the grid-tied PV systems use a two-stage power con-
version topology. The first power converter is a DC/AC/DC or DC/
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: josean.cortajarena@ehu.es (J.A. Cortajarena).
than the grid voltage peak value. This converter is used to realize
the MPPT algorithm adapting the PV voltage. The second converter
is a DC/AC converter to connect and inject the PV energy into the
utility grid.
The maximum utilization voltage for a PV system is limited by
different interrelated factors, including electrical codes, equipment
standards, equipment availability, and cost. Over the last decade,
600 V PV utilization voltages have been the norm in North Amer-
ica. In Europe, 1.000 V PV systems are commonplace, and the
equipment certification standards are often more stringent than
those in the US. Using a higher input DC voltage, design and tech-
nology allow integrators to realize increased energy production,
material cost savings and a lower levelized cost of energy (LCOE).
Some of the benefits of increase the DC/AC input voltage are the
use of more modules and power per source circuit; fewer source
circuits for the same array capacity; fewer components including
overcurrent protection devices, combiners, disconnects and so
on; reduced labor costs; less copper in the DC collection system;
less expensive inverters (less copper, lower current ratings for sub-
components) and lower overall cost per watt.
Therefore, the long-term benefits are reduced wire losses
according to I2R (doubling voltage reduces conduction losses
to one-quarter for the same power level) and increased power

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2017.07.029
0038-092X/Ó 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
794 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

Nomenclature

a; b direct and quadrature axes expressed in the stationary fPWM inverter commutation frequency
reference frame VOC PV open circuit voltage
d; q direct and quadrature axes expressed in the syn- ISC PV short circuit current
chronous rotating reference frame VMP PV maximum power point voltage
Lg grid inductance IMP PV maximum power point current
Rg grid resistance PMP PV maximum power point power
xe synchronous speed n damping ratio
ig grid current xn undamped natural frequency
iPV solar panel current KP PI proportional constant
iinv(avg) DC/AC inverter average input current KI PI integral constant
vg grid voltage d(t) SMC uncertainty terms
vC inverter capacitor voltage S(t) SMC sliding variable
vPV solar panel voltage b SMC switching gain
vinv DC/AC inverter voltage main harmonic k SMC constant gain
P grid active power V Lyapunov function
Q grid reactive power
Kinv DC/AC inverter gain

conversion efficiency at the inverter (Morgenson, 2015). In the
paper A Quantitative Comparison of Central Inverters and String
Inverters in Utility-Scale Solar Systems in North America
(Schneider Electric, 2016), an experimental study is presented.
The conclusions are that the central inverter is 1% more efficient
and from a financial perspective, central inverters are a more
attractive investment.
According to the tendency of increase the inverter input volt-
age, the series-parallel or centralized topology, as shown in
Fig. 1, is the most used topology. It is implemented with series-
connected PV modules, known as strings, which are connected in
parallel to form the array (Femia et al., 2012). As mentioned earlier,
the DC/AC inverter input voltage should be higher than the grid
voltage peak value. In a single-phase grid connection the voltage
p
level is 3 lower than in a three-phase system, so less PV modules
per string will be used to get the appropriate voltage level. This
makes more appropriate a single-phase system than a three-
phase system in low power schemes.
This kind of systems are usually controlled using cascaded Pro-
portional Integral (PI) or Proportional Resonant (PR) current con-
trollers and a PI voltage controller. Nevertheless, since the actual
system parameters always differ from those from the data sheet
used for PI tuning, a fine-tuning over the real equipment is gener-
ally required to achieve an adequate performance (Astrom and
Hagglund, 2001). Moreover, some tuning methods require the
exact model of the system, and it is well known that depending
on the tuning method used, PI and PR controllers may present a
considerable lack of robustness (Vilanova et al., 2010). In this con-
text, the most suitable option is to consider some kind of robust
control scheme as it is the case of the sliding mode control initially
developed by Utkin (Utkin, 1993) and successfully applied to
diverse types of control structures (Barambones and Garrido,
2006; Veselic et al., 2008; Orłowska-Kowalska et al., 2010).
In (Ya-Ting et al., 2014) a sliding mode controller is used in a
Boost-Inverter configuration to regulate the inverter output cur-
rent and to get the maximum power from the PV. In
(Mojallizadeh et al., 2016) a SMC controller is used in a Boost con-
verter for a MPPT but the energy is dissipated in a resistor and no
inverter control is needed. In (Lauria and Coppola, 2014) two SMC
controllers are used in a Boost-Inverter configuration but the inver-
ter is controlled to a fixed voltage reference value. In (Rong-Jong
et al., 2013; Xiang et al., 2013) the injected grid current is con-
trolled in a grid tied inverter with different SMC, but the DC input
voltage is not regulated and it is not tested the robustness to noise
in the measurement nor to the fluctuations of the grid voltage
amplitude.
In the configuration presented in this paper the boost converter
it is not necessary, and directly the inverter input voltage is regu-
lated with the proposed sliding mode controller to get from the PV
the maximum power. The proposed SMC control does not improve
the efficiency of the inverter, however, it contributes a high degree
of robustness that has been tested in the work and that in other
works although they are mentioned have not been experimentally
proven (Su et al., 2015).
The inverter voltage reference it is imposed for the MPPT algo-
rithm. The inverter control has been designed in the d-q rotating
reference frame after use a virtual bi-phase system.
The presented SMC controller includes system uncertainties,
like capacitor tolerances, measurement small errors, and grid volt-
age tolerances. So, the performance and robustness of the proposed
new SMC is validate in a real platform in suitable and adverse con-
ditions for two different types of disturbances, measured PV volt-
age noise and grid voltage amplitude alteration. The SMC is also
compared experimentally with a conventional PI controller.

iPV iinv
iC 2. System model
PV11 PV1n
Lg Rg ig Considering that, the single-phase inverter will be controlled as
C
vC vg a virtual bi-phase system, the d-q synchronous rotating reference
vinv
frame equations (Qingzeng et al., 2016) that define the model
PVm1 PVmn obtained from Fig. 1 are as follows:
digd
v gd ¼ v inv d  Rg igd  Lg þ xe Lg igq ð1Þ
dt
Fig. 1. Used topology for inverter high input voltage.
 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804 795

digq The sliding surface (13) is selected with an integral term in order to
v gq ¼ v inv q  Rg igq  Lg  xe Lg igd ð2Þ
avoid the time derivative of the error signal because this derivative
dt
will increase the noise signal ratio in a real implementation.
1 1
P¼ ðv gd igd þ v gq igq Þ ¼ ðv ga iga þ v gb igb Þ ð3Þ Finally, the sliding mode voltage controller is designed as:
2 2

1 iPV ðtÞ
igd ðtÞ ¼ keðtÞ þ bsgnðSðtÞÞ þ ð14Þ
1 1 g C
Q¼ ðv gq igd  v gd igq Þ ¼ ðv gb iga  v ga igb Þ ð4Þ
2 2
The proposed control signal (14) presents three terms, the first one
Considering the DC/AC inverter as ideal and the rotating reference is a proportional term that compensates the error, the second one
frame linked to the grid voltage (vgq = 0) from (3) and (4), it is obvi- the sliding term that compensates the system uncertainties and
ous that the active power is adjusted controlling the current d com- the third term compensates the known dynamic of the system. b
ponent and the reactive power controlling the q component. is the switching gain and sgn() is the sign function. In order to
Therefore, from (3) the power balance it is obtained: obtain the voltage trajectory tracking, the following assumptions
1 should be formulated:
iinv ðav gÞ v c ¼ v gd igd ð5Þ
2
(A1) The gain k must be chosen strictly positive.
According to the current in the PV (iPV), capacitor (iC), and inverter (A2) The switching gain b must be chosen so that b  |d(t)| for
(iinv(avg)), and considering (5), the next equation is obtained: all time. Note that this condition only implies that the uncer-


dv c 1 v gd igd tainties of the system are bounded magnitudes.
¼ iPV  ð6Þ
dt C 2v c
Now, the stability demonstration of the proposed controller will
The current control loops after removing the coupling terms of Eqs. be carried out using the Lyapunov stability theory. Let us define the
(1) and (2) are regulated with PI controllers with constants, following Lyapunov function:
2nxn Lg  Rg x2 L g 1
KP ¼ ; KI ¼ n ð7Þ VðtÞ ¼ SðtÞ  SðtÞ ð15Þ
K inv K inv 2
To design the voltage controller, Eq. (6) has to be taken into account. Taking the time derivative of the Lyapunov function, it is
If a PI controller is to be used the nonlinear equation has to be lin- obtained:
earized around the operation point, and then adjusted. Because the
_
VðtÞ _
¼ SðtÞ  SðtÞ _ þ keðtÞÞ ¼
¼ SðtÞ  ðeðtÞ
voltage reference is changing continuously by the MPPT algorithm,

a self-tuning has to be implemented. 1
SðtÞ  iPV ðtÞ  gðtÞigd ðtÞ þ dðtÞ þ keðtÞ ¼
Sliding mode control is believed to be robust in the control of C


linear and nonlinear uncertain systems (Utkin, 1992) so, in this 1 1
paper, a SMC is used. From Eq. (6) it is obtained: SðtÞ  iPV ðtÞ  keðtÞ  bsgnðSðtÞÞ  iPV ðtÞ þ dðtÞ þ keðtÞ ¼
C C
dv c 1 v gd SðtÞ  ðdðtÞ  bsgnðSðtÞÞÞ
¼ iPV  gðtÞigd ; gðtÞ ¼ ð8Þ
dt C 2C v c ð16Þ
where vgd is theoretically a constant value (grid voltage peak value). Considering that,
Considering the system uncertainties, like no modelled dynamics
and parametric uncertainties Eq. (8) can be rewritten as: SðtÞ  ðdðtÞ  bsgnðSðtÞÞÞ 6 ðb  jdðtÞjÞjSðtÞj ð17Þ

dv c 1 In the last inequality, the assumption A2 has been used. Therefore,

¼ iPV  gðtÞigd þ dðtÞ ð9Þ
dt C _ _
VðtÞ ¼ SðtÞ  SðtÞ ¼ SðtÞ  ðdðtÞ  bsgnðSðtÞÞÞ 6 0 ð18Þ
where the term d(t) includes the above mentioned system uncer-
tainties, like capacitor tolerances, measurement small errors, and Using the Lyapunov’s direct method, since V(t) is clearly positive-
grid voltage tolerances. _
definite, VðtÞ is negative definite and V(t) tends to infinity as S(t)
Let us define the voltage tracking error as follows: tends to infinity, then the equilibrium at the origin S(t) = 0 is glob-
ally asymptotically stable. Therefore S(t) tends to zero as the time
eðtÞ ¼ v c  v c ð10Þ
tends to infinity. Moreover, all trajectories starting off the sliding
Taking the derivative of the previous equation with respect to time surface S(t) = 0 must reach it in finite time and then will remain
yields: on this surface. This system’s behavior once on the sliding surface
is usually called ‘‘sliding mode”.
1
_
eðtÞ ¼ v_ c  v_ c ¼ iPV  gðtÞigd þ dðtÞ ð11Þ When the sliding mode occurs on the sliding surface then S(t)Ṡ
C
(t) = 0 and therefore the dynamic behavior of the tracking problem
where it is considered that the reference voltage is a quasi-constant is equivalently governed by the following equation:
signal because with the MPPT algorithm the change is slow for the
_
SðtÞ _ þ keðtÞ ¼ 0
¼ eðtÞ ð19Þ
control period.
To compensate the system uncertainties an SMC scheme is pro- Then, under assumption A1, the tracking error e(t) converges to zero
posed. The sliding variable S(t) is defined as: exponentially.
Z t It should be noted that, a typical motion under sliding mode
SðtÞ ¼ eðtÞ þ keðsÞds ð12Þ control consists of a reaching phase during which trajectories start-
0
ing off the sliding surface S(t) = 0 move toward it and reach it in
Then, the sliding surface is defined as: finite time, followed by sliding phase during which the motion will
Z t be confined to this surface and the system tracking error will be
SðtÞ ¼ eðtÞ þ keðsÞds ¼ 0 ð13Þ represented by the reduced-order model where the tracking error
0
tends to zero.
796 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

3. PV control structure Table 1

Parameters of the system.

Fig. 2 shows the structure of the grid-tied single-phase inverter Parameter Value
for PV maximum power point tracking and the main characteristics Grid voltage, v g 230 V
of the system are shown in Table 1. Grid frequency, xg ¼ xe 2p50 rad/s
The employed PV is an emulated array of 6  4 GE-CdTe83 pan- Grid filter resistance, Rg 0.1 X
els (General Electric Company, 2010). The voltage power character- Grid filter inductance, Lg 9 mH
Inverter capacitance, C 1500 lF (±20%)
istic curves of the array for two temperatures and three levels of
Inverter modulation frequency, f PWM 10 kHz
irradiance are shown in Fig. 3. The shaded area shows the possible p
Inverter gain, K inv 230 2
operating zone for the inverter. That is, the zone where the inverter Current PI controller xn 1100 rad/s
input voltage is higher than the grid peak voltage plus the voltage Current PI controller n 1
drop in the inductance. PV open circuit voltage, V OCð25 C;1000 W=m2 Þ 568 V
PV sort circuit current, ISCð25 C;1000 W=m2 Þ 4.93 A
A synchronous reference frame phase-locked loop (SRF-PLL) is
PV maximum power point voltage, V MPð25 C;1000 W=m2 Þ 447.4 V
used for extraction of grid voltage phase, frequency, and ampli-
PV maximum power point current, IMPð25 C;1000 W=m2 Þ 4.437 A
tude. The PLL PI controller gains are adjusted as indicated in PV maximum power, P MPð25 C;1000 W=m2 Þ 1984 W
(Golestan and Guerrero, 2015) with a natural frequency of
628 rad/s and a damping factor of 1 (Ghartemani et al., 2012).
In the DC/AC inverter, the Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation
(SPWM) unipolar switching technique is implemented. This way, PPV (kW)
2
the output voltage high frequency main harmonics appear at twice 1000W m 2 25o C
the switching frequency, improving the current ripple for a given 600W m 2 50o C
1.6 200W m 2
inductance. The inverter DC voltage is measured for feedback pur-
poses with the HCNR201 High-Linearity Analog Optocoupler. How-
1.2 25o C
2
ever, the low-frequency DC ripple, due to energy fluctuations
inherent in a single-phase system (Zhong et al., 2012; Wang 50o C
et al., 2011), in PWM converters used in photovoltaic applications 0.8
shifts the operating point of a panel away from the desired maxi-
25o C
mum power point tracking condition (Harb et al., 2013). To remove 0.4
o
this ripple in the feedback signal a band-stop filter (BSF) or notch 50 C
vPV (V)
filter is implemented with a reject frequency of 100 Hz and a qual- 0
ity factor of 10. 0 112 224 336 448 560
The PI current controllers have and anti-windup scheme to pre-
Fig. 3. Used PV array power characteristic curves.
vent integration wind-up. The controller gains are adjusted to have
a bandwidth of 1100 rad/s and a damping ratio of 1.
The measured grid voltage and current are delayed 90° to work parameters of the Sliding Mode Controller are adjusted taking into
in a virtual bi-phase system. This is realized with an all-pass filter account Section 2.
where the phase shift is 90° to the grid frequency.
The implemented maximum power point tracking algorithm is
the perturbation-observation (P&O). The power for the P&O is cal- 4. Experimental platform
culated using Eq. (3) with the measured grid voltage and the inver-
ter current, avoiding the use of a DC current sensor in the output of The employed experimental platform is shown in Fig. 4. It is
the PV array. The voltage perturbation is a step of 2 V and is real- composed of a PC with MatLab/Simulink R2009b, dsControl 3.7.1
ized every 300 ms. The reactive power is controlled using Eq. (4) and the DS1006 Controller Board real time interface of dSPACE,
to get the current grid q component as the reference. The with an AMD Opteron processor to 2.6 GHz. The DC/AC inverter
is an INF-50 with an input maximum voltage of 800 V and

Lg Rg vPV

C BSF
vPV igd *
igd
vg 1
*
vPV
+
vgd P = vgd igd
2
MPPT − SMC

ig *
igq
Q* 2Q
Unipolar i =
*
gq
vgd
vinv _ α SPWM
vgd − ω g Lg igq *
igd θg vg
α −β ++ K +− SRF
KP + I d −q
s − jπ 2
PLL e
*
igq e
− jπ 2 vgd
KI +−
++ KP + α −β
d −q s
θg
θg ω g Lg igd

Fig. 2. Control structure of the single-phase grid-tied inverter.

 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804
Solar
Array
Simulator
Power
analizer
dSPACE
software
BK_PVS
60085MR
Inverter
Inductances
Signal
conditioning
Autotransformer
Fig. 4. Experimental platform.
maximum output current of 25 A (Dutt, Power electronics &
Control, 2016).
The grid voltage measurement is realized with an ISO124 preci-
sion isolation amplifier and the necessary electronic circuit and the
interface between the dSPACE and the inverter has been imple-
mented in a Printed Circuit Board. The General Electric PV array
composed of GE-CdTe83 thin film solar modules is emulated with
a BK_PVS60085MR programmable power supply and its software
for Solar Array Simulation.
The 9 mH grid inductance can manage 12 A to 20 kHz. The
unipolar SPWM frequency is fixed to 10 kHz with dead times of
1 ls. The SMC reference voltage changes every 300 ms and the
control period is 100 ls, this is the reason to consider the voltage
reference as a quasi-constant value for the SMC. To check the
robustness of the SMC to disturbances of the grid voltage a
5 kV A autotransformer is used.
The b parameter of the SMC, as it is indicated in assumption
(A2), should be selected greater than the system uncertainties.
However, as it is well known a bigger beta parameter will imply
a bigger control activity that is undesirable in practice. After some
adjustments and taking in consideration the control activity the
adjusted final values are b = 900 and k = 30.
5. Experimental results
5.1. Results for the proposed SMC
The realized experiments will show first the steady-state
behavior of the system including the Total Harmonic Distortion
(THD) of the current, then the dynamic behavior, the robustness
of the system and a comparison with a conventional PI controller.
Finally, the efficiency will be analyzed.
Fig. 5 shows the MPP tracking results from the beginning of the
system connection. A 0 VAR reference of reactive power is imposed
to the system. The PV is working with an irradiance of 1000 W/m2
and a temperature of 25 °C. According to Fig. 3 or Table 1 the
expected maximum power is 1984 W.
The P&O MPPT method starts looking for the maximum power
point with steps in the voltage reference of 2 V every 300 ms.
The Sliding Mode Control tracks the voltage reference imposed
for the MPPT algorithm perfectly as can be seen in the figure.
The imposed grid current d component, igd, for the SMC controller
is also shown in the figure. The measured value tracks to the
797
reference very well, showing a good adjustment of the PI current
controller.
The P&O method produces a ripple inherent to the MPPT algo-
rithm; the ripple is low enough, around 2.5%, to get the maximum
power from the PV. The evidence of that is showed in the MPPT
efficiency figure.
After reaching the MPP point the minimum efficiency obtained
from the PV is 99.1% and the average is 99.7%. The measured grid
average power in the steady state zone is 1884 W, slightly lower
than the PV maximum power due to the inverter efficiency.
Fig. 6 shows the grid-side voltage, current, instantaneous and
average power when the MPPT algorithm is in steady-state for a
unity power factor. The irradiance and temperature are 1000 W/
m2 and 25 °C respectively. The measured average power is
1884 W, and the measured power factor is 0.996. Fig. 7 shows
Fig. 6 grid injected current harmonics from 2nd to 25th included
the Total Harmonic Distortion. Shown values represent the per-
centage with respect to the fundamental harmonic. The obtained
THD is 1.76 %, lower than the value limited by the IEEE-519 (cur-
rent THD < 5%) (IEEE Std 519–2014). According to the EN50530
(EN 50530, 2010), the dynamic MPPT efficiency is measured using
series of triangular irradiance waveforms. The maximum gradient
consider in the EN50530 test is of 100 W/m2/s.
Fig. 8 illustrates a scenario where the irradiance is changing
with the mentioned maximum gradient between 1000 W/m2 and
500 W/m2 in 5 s and from 1000 W/m2 to 200 W/m2 in 8 s with a
PV array temperature of 25 °C. The signals showed the evolution
of the system from the MPPT starting moment.
The P&O method starts looking for the maximum power point
and reaches the maximum power after 7 s. The sliding mode con-
troller tracks all the time the voltage reference imposed for the
MPPT algorithm as it is shown in the figure. The voltage variation
to obtain the maximum power according to the given irradiance
profile for the same temperature is around 20 V as can be seen also
in Fig. 3 looking for the maximum power point voltages.
In SMC controllers, chattering mainly occurs due to the non-
linearity of the sgn() function that performs the switching opera-
tion and generates a discontinuous control signal (Lee and Utkin,
2007). In the presented SMC controller, the sign function is
replaced for a hyperbolic tangent, tanh(), in order to reduce the
chattering level.
The imposed grid current d component, igd, for the SMC con-
troller is also shown in the figure and the measured value tracks
to the reference correctly. The shape of the current component
igd is the same as that of the irradiance because the power variation
is proportional to both, the irradiance and the grid current d
component.
The PV current, due to an almost constant PV voltage, and the
grid injected power have the same shape as the irradiance. Observ-
ing the obtained PV power and the theoretical maximum possible
according to the given irradiance, a good maximum power point
tracking is achieved. Also, this is observed in the MPPT efficiency
measurement figure, where the average efficiency is 99.1%.
Fig. 9 shows the SMC response when a PV voltage step is pro-
duced. The step is a sudden change from 550 V to 480 V. The figure
shows a good system dynamic including the SMC controller and it
needs 200 ms to produce the full voltage change. During the volt-
age step the power changes from 460 W to 1900 W and the grid
current changes also suddenly from 2 A to 8.3 A. The voltage and
current are in phase because the imposed power factor is one.
Fig. 10 shows the static behavior of the controlled system when
a reactive power reference is imposed. The MPPT algorithm is
injecting to the grid 1200 W of active power. In the first graphic,
the grid current is lagging the voltage 45°, so has an inductive
behavior. In the second graphic, the current is leading the voltage
45°, showing a capacitive behavior.
798 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

520
measured
500 reference

Vpv (V)
480

460

440
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

15
14
13
Igd (A)

12
11 measured
reference
10
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

4.5
Ipv (A)

3.5
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

2100
X: 19.94
Y: 1983
2000
PV power (W)

1900

1800

1700
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
100
efficiency (%)

95
MPPT

90

85
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
t (s)

Fig. 5. P&O MPP tracking from the initial moment. Irradiance 1000 W/m2, temperature 25 °C. PV array voltage (VPV), grid current d component (Igd), PV current (IPV), PV power
and MPPT efficiency.
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

Grid V

Grid I

Grid P
P (500W/div)

<P>
1884 W

t (10ms/div)

Fig. 6. Grid voltage and current at maximum power point for unity power factor and injected instantaneous and average power. Irradiance 1000 W/m2 and temperature
25 °C.

Fig. 11 shows the dynamic behavior of the controlled system VAR to 1200 VAR. The MPPT algorithm is injecting to the grid
when the reactive power reference changes suddenly from 1200 1200 W of active power. Suddenly a step change in the reactive
 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804 799

2 The imposed reactive power reference produces a lag between the

THD
1,8 grid current and the grid voltage of 45° and after the reactive step,
Grid current (% fundamental)

1,6 the current is leading the voltage 45°.

1,4 When the reactive power reference changes, the PV voltage
1,2 does not suffer any alteration, showing a good regulation of the
1 SMC. The obtained PV average current is 2.3 A, producing and aver-
0,8
age power of 1219 W, corresponding to 600 W/m2 of irradiance
0,6
and 25 °C.
0,4
0,2
0 5.2. SMC robustness and comparison with a PI controller
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25
Harmonic order
As indicated earlier the SMC has the advantage of the distur-
Fig. 7. Injected grid current harmonic level in relation to the fundamental and THD bance rejection and insensitivity to parameter variations (Utkin,
for the grid current of Fig. 6. Obtained using a Tektronix 434 Series II Energy 1993). The d(t) term in the controller includes uncertainties, like
Analyzer.
capacitor tolerances, measurement small errors and grid voltage
tolerances. In this sense, Fig. 12 shows the dynamic behavior of
power reference is imposed to the system and the transition occurs the controlled system when there is noise in the measured PV volt-
in 2 ms; this time is related to the current controller’s bandwidth age. The noise is a sinusoidal value of 200 Hz and a peak-to-peak
because the reactive power is directly proportional to the grid cur- value of 16 V.
rent q component as mentioned in Eq. (4) after considering vgq = 0. Even to the noise, the SMC controller performs correctly the
voltage tracking and the noise effect does modify slightly the

1000
Irradiance (W/m2)

800
T=25 ºC
600

400

200

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

550
measured
reference
500
Vpv (V)

450

400
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

5
15
measured
4
reference
Ipv (A)

103
Igd (A)

2
5
1

0
00 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
2000
obtained
maximum
1500
PV power (W)

1000

500

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

100
MPPT efficiency (%)

95

90

85

80
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
t (s)

Fig. 8. P&O MPP tracking from the initial moment. Irradiance changing from 1000 W/m2 to 200 W/m2, temperature 25 °C. PV array voltage (VPV), grid current d component
(Igd), PV current (IPV), obtained grid power and maximum possible and MPPT efficiency.
800 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

Grid V

V (100V/div) / I (5A/div)
V (200V/div) / I (1A/div) Grid I

PV (V) = 550V
PV (V) = 480V

PV (I) = 4A
PV (I) = 0.84A

t (50ms/div)

Fig. 9. Grid voltage and current when a PV voltage step from 550 V to 480 V is produced. PV current for the imposed voltage step.
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

t (5ms/div)
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

t (5ms/div)
Fig. 10. Grid voltage and current for an injected power of 1200 W and a reactive power of 1200 VAR and 1200 VAR.

current form as it is indicated in the scope measurement with the
THD. For the injected power of 1200 W the THD becomes 6% and
for an injected higher power, in the figure 1960 W, the THD
decreases to 3%. The ripple effect hasn’t produced appreciable con-
sequences in the active and reactive power measurements.
Generally, the grid voltage is considered constant, but due to
variations of grid connected loads, the nominal value, 230 V, can
be altered in the order of ±10% (EN 50160, CENELEC, 2005). This
grid voltage value modification is included in the uncertainties
term d(t) of the SMC. A test of the robustness for modifications
in the grid voltage value is shown in Fig. 13.
The system is getting from the PV 1750 W, that is, PV voltage
500 V and PV current of 3.5 A. The figure shows three different
zones: the first one is showing a grid peak voltage of 320 V, consid-
ered as nominal value and the peak current value injected to the
grid is 10 A. The second zone shows an increase of the grid voltage
of a 12%, the grid peak voltage value is now 359 V. At the grid volt-
age increase instant, the PV voltage regulated for the SMC does not
suffer any alteration, and according to the obtained power from the
PV the grid injected peak current is now 9 A. In the third zone, the
grid peak voltage is reduced to 300 V and the PV voltage controlled
for the SMC does not suffer any alteration either. Because the
power is maintained constant, the injected grid current peak value
is now 10.7 A.
The same system has been tested with a conventional PI con-
troller for comparative purposes. The PI controller is adjusted with
 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804 801

Grid V

V (100V/div) / I (5A/div)
Grid I

-45º +45º
V (100V/div) / I (1A/div)

PV (V) = 530V

<PV (I)> = 2.3A

t (5ms/div)

Fig. 11. Grid voltage and current for an injected power of 1200 W and a transition of reactive power from 1200 VAR to 1200 VAR.

540
Noisy measurement
PV reference
520
PV (V)

500

480

460
-0.1 0 0.1 t (s) 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
400

200 20
Grid voltage (V)

0 0 Grid current (A)

-200 -20

Grid V Grid I
-400
-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
t (s)

Grid V
V (100V/div) / I (5A/div)

Grid V
Grid I
7.5A Grid I
12A

THDi=6% THDi=3%

t (5ms/div) t (5ms/div)

2000
Grid P & Q (W & VAR)

1500

1000

500

0
P
Q
-500
-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
t(s)

Fig. 12. PV measured voltage with noise used for regulation. Grid voltage and current and grid injected active and reactive power.
802 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804

V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)
Grid V

Grid I

V (100V/div) / I (2A/div)
1 2 3

PV = 500V

<PV I> = 3.5A

t (500ms/div)
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

Grid Vˆ = 320V

1
Grid Iˆ = 10 A
t (5ms/div)
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

2 Grid Vˆ = 359V

Grid Iˆ = 9 A

t (5ms/div)
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

Grid Vˆ = 300V

3 Grid Iˆ = 10.7 A
t (5ms/div)

Fig. 13. Grid voltage perturbation of +12% and 7%. PV measured voltage and current. Zoom of the grid voltage and current for different grid voltage levels.

the highest possible bandwidth guaranteeing stability, KP = 0.1 and
KI = 2.
Producing the same disturbance in the grid voltage the obtained
results can be observed in Fig. 14. The PV voltage undergoes a vari-
ation of 30 V due to the grid perturbation. Compared to the PV volt-
age variation obtained with the SMC, (Fig. 13), the variation in the
system with the PI is considerably greater.
To compare the dynamic behavior of the SMC and the PI con-
troller, a voltage step from 550 V to 480 V is produced in the sys-
tem. Fig. 15 shows the behavior of the PI controller and Fig. 9
shows the SMC behavior for the same voltage step. The required
time to reach the target with the SMC controller is around
200 ms, however, with the PI controller it takes around 800 ms. If
a faster dynamic is imposed to the PI the settling time improves
but the oscillatory behavior also increases.
5.3. Overall efficiency
As mentioned before, when PV modules are connected directly
to the DC link of the inverter and the high step-up power con-
verter used in conventional systems is avoided, the obtained effi-
ciency increases (Morgenson, 2015). In Planning and Installing
Photovoltaic Systems (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sonnenenergie.
2008) the efficiency of the PV system with a central inverter is
5% higher than PV installation with module inverters. In the
paper, Comparison of central vs distributed inverters: application
to photovoltaic systems (Villarejo et al., 2011) when the
solar irradiation parameter is considered as constant for the
PV–modules, and the temperature is assumed as a normal distri-
bution the efficiency of the system is 1% higher in the central
inverter.
 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804 803

V (100V/div) / I (2A/div) V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

Grid V

Grid I

PV = 500V 30V

<PV I> = 3.5A

t (500ms/div)

Fig. 14. Grid voltage perturbation of +12% and 7%. PV measured voltage and current with the PI controller.
V (100V/div) / I (10A/div)

Grid V

Grid I

PV = 550V
V (20V/div)

PV = 480V

t (200ms/div)

Fig. 15. PI controller. Grid voltage and current for a PV voltage step from 550 V to 480 V.

Many papers have studied the efficiency of the high step-up elimination of this power converter like happens in this application
power converters applied to the PV control (Tseng and Hsu, improves the overall efficiency between 4% and 10%.
2013; Zheng et al., 2012; Saadat and Abbaszadeh, 2016). The Fig. 16 shows the efficiency of the used DC/AC inverter, where
efficiency of this type of converter goes from 90% to 96%. The the maximum power efficiency is 94%. The efficiency of the instal-

100

90
Efficiency (%)

80

70

60
DC/AC inverter
Overall
50
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
Power (W)

Fig. 16. DC/AC inverter and overall efficiency.

804 J.A. Cortajarena et al. / Solar Energy 155 (2017) 793–804
lation depends greatly on the design of the system. If a bigger
inverter is chosen for a smaller set of solar panels, there is an effi-
ciency drop. Any inverter operates at its maximum efficiency of
97.5% or 98.5% when the capacity of the panels is adjusted to the
power of the inverter. In this sense, the used power inverter is an
oversized inverter used in motor control applications. For this rea-
son, the efficiency is slightly lower than commercial inverters
(Fronius, Sunny Boy and Soleos Oxygen, 2017). If the power
switches were dimensioned to the real application, the inverter
efficiency would improve. Considering an average efficiency of
the P&O MPPT of 99.1%, the overall efficiency has the same shape
but 1% reduced.
6. Conclusions
In this work, the importance of single-stage grid-tied PV system
has been highlighted. A single-stage topology with a new Sliding
Mode Controller has been implemented to track the imposed MPPT
voltage reference in a photovoltaic panel. In this configuration, the
PV array voltage must be higher than the grid peak value, and if
this condition is met, the typical used step-up converter is elimi-
nated increasing the overall efficiency. The inverter current is con-
trolled in the d-q rotating reference frame after use a virtual bi-
phase system; this makes the independent control of the active
and reactive powers very easy as have been demonstrated experi-
mentally. The proposed SMC tracks the voltage reference satisfac-
torily in suitable and adverse conditions, and this has been
satisfactorily tested for two different types of disturbances, mea-
sured PV voltage noise and grid voltage amplitude alteration. The
SMC is compared experimentally with a conventional PI controller,
obtaining a better dynamic and disturbance rejection. The realized
experimental tests provide the experimental validation of the full
system.
Acknowledgments
The authors are very grateful to the University of the Basque
Country (UPV/EHU) by its support through the project PPGA17/02.
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